Compared to earlier attempts to make high-temperature photonic crystals, the new approach is “higher performance, simpler, robust and amenable to inexpensive large-scale production.

A microscope image of the tungsten photonic crystal structure reveals the precise uniform spacing of cavities formed in the material, which are tuned to specific wavelengths of light. Image courtesy of Y.X. Yeng et al.

These new high-temperature, two-dimensional photonic crystals can be fabricated almost entirely using standard microfabrication techniques and existing equipment for manufacturing computer chips, says Celanovic, a research engineer at MIT’s Institute for Soldier Nanotechnologies.

While there are natural photonic crystals — such as opals, whose iridescent colors result from a layered structure with a scale comparable to wavelengths of visible light — the current work involved a nanoengineered material tailored for the infrared range. All photonic crystals have a lattice of one kind of material interspersed with open spaces or a complementary material, so that they selectively allow certain wavelengths of light to pass through while others are absorbed. When used as emitters, they can selectively radiate certain wavelengths while strongly suppressing others.

Photonic crystals that can operate at very high temperatures could open up a suite of potential applications, including devices for solar-thermal conversion or solar-chemical conversion, radioisotope-powered devices, hydrocarbon-powered generators or components to wring energy from waste heat at powerplants or industrial facilities. But there have been many obstacles to creating such materials: The high temperatures can lead to evaporation, diffusion, corrosion, cracking, melting or rapid chemical reactions of the crystals’ nanostructures. To overcome these challenges, the MIT team used computationally guided design to create a structure from high-purity tungsten, using a geometry specifically designed to avoid damage when the material is heated.

NASA has taken an interest in the research because of its potential to provide long-term power for deep-space missions that cannot rely on solar power. These missions typically use radioisotope thermal generators (RTGs), which harness the power of a small amount of radioactive material. For example, the new Curiosity rover scheduled to arrive at Mars this summer uses an RTG system; it will be able to operate continuously for many years, unlike solar-powered rovers that have to hunker down for the winter when solar power is insufficient.

Other potential applications include more efficient ways of powering portable electronic devices. Instead of batteries, these devices could run on thermophotovoltaic generators that produce electricity from heat that is chemically generated by microreactors, from a fuel such as butane. For a given weight and size, such systems could allow these devices to run up to 10 times longer than they do with existing batteries, Celanovic says.

While it’s always hard to predict how long it will take for advances in basic science to lead to commercial products, Celanovic says he and his colleagues are already working on system integration and testing applications. There could be products based on this technology in as little as two years, he says, and most likely within five years.

In addition to producing power, the same photonic crystal can be used to produce precisely tuned wavelengths of infrared light. This could enable highly accurate spectroscopic analysis of materials and lead to sensitive chemical detectors, he says

The nascent field of high-temperature nanophotonics could potentially enable many important solid-state energy conversion applications, such as thermophotovoltaic energy generation, selective solar absorption, and selective emission of light. However, special challenges arise when trying to design nanophotonic materials with precisely tailored optical properties that can operate at high-temperatures (over 1,100 K). These include proper material selection and purity to prevent melting, evaporation, or chemical reactions; severe minimization of any material interfaces to prevent thermomechanical problems such as delamination; robust performance in the presence of surface diffusion; and long-range geometric precision over large areas with severe minimization of very small feature sizes to maintain structural stability. Here we report an approach for high-temperature nanophotonics that surmounts all of these difficulties. It consists of an analytical and computationally guided design involving high-purity tungsten in a precisely fabricated photonic crystal slab geometry (specifically chosen to eliminate interfaces arising from layer-by-layer fabrication) optimized for high performance and robustness in the presence of roughness, fabrication errors, and surface diffusion. It offers near-ultimate short-wavelength emittance and low, ultra-broadband long-wavelength emittance, along with a sharp cutoff offering 4∶1 emittance contrast over 10% wavelength separation. This is achieved via Q-matching, whereby the absorptive and radiative rates of the photonic crystal’s cavity resonances are matched. Strong angular emission selectivity is also observed, with short-wavelength emission suppressed by 50% at 75° compared to normal incidence. Finally, a precise high-temperature measurement technique is developed to confirm that emission at 1,225 K can be primarily confined to wavelengths shorter than the cutoff wavelength.